Category: Book Review

1. We are still in the process of renovating our office. It’s emotionally and financially draining. I don’t know where to get more supply of patience as we wait for it to finally be over. I can’t wait to see the output and I can’t wait to settle all our dues so that we can move on to our next project.

2. I am undergoing splint therapy because of my TMJ disorder. After 6 months, I’d be wearing braces to make the treatment permanent. TMJ has been causing pain in my facial muscles, neck and shoulders for years.

3. What’s the travel plan for 2015? I HAVE NO IDEA! (Can you feel the frustration? haha!) Kidding aside, we’ve been delaying a lot of things because we wanted to focus our resources on our new office. As I’ve said, renovating a vacant 220 sqm office space is not a walk in the park. I am still hopeful we’ll continue the yearly tradition, but just in case nothing pushed through, I’m ready.

4. We’ve been pitching to local brands about our company Propelrr. We’re meeting brand managers, members of the top management, even entrepreneurs themselves to present our company and what we can provide. Definitely a learning experience for a structured engineer-turned-auditor who’s more into financial and operations rather than sales and marketing – that’s me.

5. I am reading a really good book, the Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story. It is about the Enron scandal that led to the bankruptcy of this American energy company. I knew from the very start that it’s going to be a good book, but it turned out to be MORE than I expected. I am learning a lot about running a business from a C-level perspective while enjoying a mystery novel.

6. Our kids are all big! Marcus just turned 16 (the age I met Gary, can you imagine?), and he’ll be in 10th grade this coming school year. He’s now busy helping the company as an intern (not a requirement from his school but from me for him to earn the bass guitar that he’s been asking since last year.) Zach is turning 10, ready for 5th grade, and finally had his circumcision. Lia turned 6 last May and will be a grade schooler in a few months.

Compared to last year, by this time, we’ve already been to Surigao-Japan-Palawan-Baguio. But well, we didn’t have a real office space then. Those travel put together wouldn’t match the cost of the four ceiling-aircon alone that were recently installed in our new office. So nothing to complain about, really.

Days after I’ve finished the book… di pa rin ako maka-get over. I decided to read “For Whom The Bell Tolls” next because I am scared of being bored reading other books after ‘The Fault in Our Stars’… because it is definitely a masterpiece.

Actually, it’s like reading one of those Sweet dreams book, very easy to read. Pang-highschool. BUT, how the love story was revealed was something else. Ang galing ni John Green. He was able to make me laugh, cry and fall in love (as in kinilig ako ng bongga!). The story emphasized the simplicity and complexity of life. The freedom to choose what to feel. The realities of life… that you have no other choice but to accept.

I want to share quotes from the book…

“That’s the thing about pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt”

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

“But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.”

At eto… kung hindi ka ba talaga kiligin!

“Come over here so I can examine your face with my hands and see deeper into your soul than a sighted person ever could.”

Madami pa… basahin nyo na lang!

And then a thought entered my mind, this book should have a movie. Alas! It was filmed already. Kaso di kotype si Ansel Elgort as Augustus.

Crush ko pa nman si Augustus sa book. Bakit hindi na lang ito…

BOOM!

Anyway, I realized… gusto ko ba talaga sya mapanuod. I am afraid that it will break my heart, not because of the story, but because they won’t be able to give justice to the book.